Pete Sampras' Grand Slam Finals Matches

[serve/and/volley]

One way to measure the quality of an opponent in a Grand Slam final is the count the total # of Grand Slam titles the opponent as won - Opponent Grand Slam (OPS). This is in a way somewhat superficial, but it is a quick way of numerically looking at a player's opponent. Here are Pete Sampras' stats:

14 Grand Slam wins
1) 8 GS, Andre Agassi, 1990 US Open
2) 4 GS, Jim Courier, 1993 Wimbledon
3) 0 GS, Cedric Pioline, 1993 US Open
4) 0 GS, Todd Martin, 1994 Australian Open
5) 1 GS, Goran Ivanisevic, 1994 Wimbledon
6) 6 GS, Boris Becker, 1995 Wimbledon
7) 8 GS, Andre Agassi, 1995 US Open
8] 1 GS, Michael Chang, 1996 US Open
9) 1 GS, Carlos Moya, 1997 Australian Open
10) 0 GS, Cedric Pioline, 1997 Wimbledon
11) 1 GS, Goran Ivanisevic, 1998 Wimbledon
12) 8 GS, Andre Agassi, 1999 Wimbledon
13) 2 GS, Patrick Rafter, 2000 Wimbledon
14) 8 GS, Andre Agassi, 2002 US Open

Total Win OGS: 48
Avg Win OGS: 3.43

The distribution of the Win OGS is:
0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 8, 8, 8
Hence the Median Win OGS is: 1.5 (the mean of 1 and 2)

4 Grand Slam runner-ups
1) 6 GS, Stefan Edberg, 1992 US Open
2) 8 GS, Andre Agassi, 1995 Australian Open
3) 2 GS, Marat Safin, 2000 US Open
4) 2 GS, Lleyton Hewitt, 2001 US Open

Runner-up OGS: 18 (OGS)
Avg Runner-up OGS: 4.50

The distribution of the Runner-up OGS is:
2, 2, 6, 8
Hence the Median Runner-up OGS is: 4.0 (the mean of 2 and 6)

Overall OGS: 66
Avg Overall OGS: 3.67

Sampras' top rival in Grand Slam finals is Agassi.

Sampras v. Agassi (GS finals): 4-1
Sampras v. Agassi (overall): 20-14

 

[dryeagle]

Watched the 00 and 01 US finals recently. Safin and Hewitt seemed to figure something out with Bh2Bh rallies and the exposing weakest part of Pete’s game. Plus tired him a bit this taxing his service games.

Seems like Agassi never figure this out and would rather shoot the Bh up the line which went to Pete’s comfort running Fh.

 

[kevin qmto]

Watched the 00 and 01 US finals recently. Safin and Hewitt seemed to figure something out with Bh2Bh rallies and the exposing weakest part of Pete’s game. Plus tired him a bit this taxing his service games.

Seems like Agassi never figure this out and would rather shoot the Bh up the line which went to Pete’s comfort running Fh.

I always look in disbelief at Pete’s game between playing Agassi at USO 01, where he seemed to always have an answer and his level was high the whole match. Then in the final against Hewitt he seemed to completely lose the plot after the close first set. Pete was coming into the net on balls he should have known he had absolutely no business coming in on, and not just getting passed, but getting passed badly. Over and over. It’s just bizarre.

 

[bigbadboaz]

Maybe he was more gassed at that stage of the tournament than we realized.

About the "opponent Grand Slams" stat, in this case it's probably at/near its most skewed. Despite Agassi's pedigree, like many stats matchups aren't being taken into account by this one, and Andre just wasn't beating Pete in many GS finals.. big matches in general for that matter.

Doesn't take away from the strength of Pete's pedigree regardless.

 

[thrust]

I always look in disbelief at Pete’s game between playing Agassi at USO 01, where he seemed to always have an answer and his level was high the whole match. Then in the final against Hewitt he seemed to completely lose the plot after the close first set. Pete was coming into the net on balls he should have known he had absolutely no business coming in on, and not just getting passed, but getting passed badly. Over and over. It’s just bizarre.

Perhaps Pete had a slight injury or wasn't feeling well, so wanted to end points as soon as possible? Everyone has an off day, every now and then. For Pete to lose like that, to anyone, something had to be wrong with him that day.

 

[Mustard]

Hewitt was zoning in the semi final and final at the 2001 US Open.